Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free

A taste of Japan

In the few days that I spent in Japan, here are some observations that I’d like to note down.

Rice fields are nothing new for an Indian like me, but to have rice fields in residential areas certainly is.

The bigger the station the more crowded it was. Okayama Station was busier than Kojima station. Sandy referred to these people filled “streets” in the station as concourses.

Queuing is in their blood. Whether at bus stops, outside the elevator, at a store, or at the train station, you can find little queues. Here is a photo I took from inside the train of a queue of people getting in.

If you look closely at the last two in the queue, you’ll see that they are wearing masks over their nose and mouth. This was another common sight all over Japan.

Politeness is the Japanese way. One hears a variant or other of the “Arigatou gozaimasu” a hundred times a day. Giving elaborately wrapped gifts is normal. My friend in hospital received many gifts, including these flowers.

Convenience stores have a variety of meal options. I quite liked this bento, with meatballs, squid, chicken, and rice, from the hospital’s convenient store.

Dinner on my last evening in Japan was an assortment of food that Logos teacher Ashley and I bought at the supermarket. Octopus Takoyaki balls, potato fries, sesame bean-paste ball, Roll with bean paste. Very yum.

We have all heard of the bullet train, which is known as the Shinkansen in Japan. I must say that riding on a Shinkansen was not amazingly different from any other train journey. But watching these majestic trains from the outside is amazing. This is a picture I clicked just as a shinkansen was arriving at a platform.

Hiroshima is the next stop after Okayama. Although I did not visit Hiroshima, just seeing the name of that place evokes sadness.

I took this picture of this brand new car on display at the Shin Osaka station. Most of the cars we have owned in Auckland have been secondhand imports from Japan. I was tickled to see a brand new car in Japan. Maybe in the evening of its life, it will make the trip to Auckland.

Let me end my posts about this visit to Japan with some pictures taken from the train to Kansai airport.